Here we are, mid-February, and yet to post a single Cucina Fresca recipe for this month. Well, have no fear! We’re planning two epic cooking days for this weekend, and I am positively giddy with anticipation.
Why?
Because. We’re making chili!!
Now, I love chili. But we seldom get to eat it. This is in large part due to Jennie’s intolerance for spicy food, but also because it’s such a heavy meaty meal with almost no real vegetable content. A hearty bowl of chili is delicious, but it’s so much food on it’s own that I find it difficult to incorporate it into a balanced meal. So, I’ve been wanting to come up with a veggie-heavy chili for years now.
It may surprise some of you to know that I was a vegetarian for about four years as a teenager/young college undergraduate. This may seem strange, since I now spend a significant amount of my time taking pictures of raw meat, preparing it, and then eating it with enthusiasm. But really, I just LOVE vegetables, and one of the things I miss most about my vegetarian days is vegetarian chili, because it was always chock full of yummy vegetables.
Since embracing the world of traditional meat chili, I’ve tasted some winners. My parents have a fantastic recipe, which is still my reigning favorite chili. Readers of the Pioneer Woman challenge of 2010 will remember her delicious recipe which was unfortunately too spicy for me and Jennie to eat without 75% sour cream and rice. What I’d really like to do, is take what I’ve learned from both of those recipes, add some good vegetables to the mix, and hopefully I’ll end up with a delicious (and not too spicy) chili that marries my love of vegetables with my recently renewed love of red meat.
[addtoany] Yum